Archive for October 2008

As I've mentioned before, there is no guarantee your blog will make money. Having said that, there’s certainly no harm in trying. After all—we bloggers often put a great deal of time and effort into our posts.

When you think about it, online advertising is very exciting. Having a blog is kind of like having a lottery ticket—if your blog somehow becomes a success, the earning potential is virtually limitless.

As with SEO, there are thousands of websites completely dedicated to making money online. I’m not trying to compete with those sites—I simply want to provide some very basic information.

Here are the two most common forms of online advertising:

Basic Text/Image Ads

Most advertisers pay cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM). This is the most common form of online advertising/money making.

Google Adsense is the reigning champion of online advertising. You simply sign up, configure the ad, copy/paste it into your blog, and you’re all set. Their ads usually match the content of your blog, which greatly increases the likelihood of clicks (and profit). Based on my (limited) research, this is how most bloggers make most of their money.

I also use blogbank, which specializes in ads for Filipinos. Blogbank pays CPM.

Referrals/Commission/Affiliate Programs

Other advertisers pay when visitors do something, like buying a product or signing up for a service. Amazon affiliates would be one example—if someone clicks one of my book links (recommended reading) and buys the book, I would get a commission.

If you want to advertise on your blog, go for it! It probably will not bother your readers, since they see ads on most of the websites they visit. Just keep this in mind—advertisements are a lot like piercings: a few are OK, but if you overdo it . . .

*SEO does not seem to be an exact science—multiple factors influence your search engine ranking.

*There are thousands of other websites where you can get more detailed SEO advice. My list isn’t exhaustive--I just want to give a few simple, easy-to-follow steps. To be honest, I've found many SEO articles to be too long, technical, and hard to understand. That's why I'm writing my own.

*High Quality Content is still the most important factor to a successful blog. SEO can help people find your website, but content keeps them there.

OK, here are a few SEO techniques that I use here on my blog.

1. Carefully choose the title of your articles/posts.

The title of your post, especially the first few words, becomes the permalink—the url address of that specific post. To see how this works, simply point your mouse at the title of this blog article. You’ll see this article's address at the bottom of your browser.

The title/permalink seems to be one of the most important factors in SEO. Look up “romantic martyr,” for example, and my article ranks #1 on google (article from KuyaKevin.com). The title of my article is one of the reasons it is ranked so highly.

Be sure to give your post/article a title which is catchy and has keywords that accurately reflects post’s content.

2. Name your pictures (image files).

This, in my opinion, is one of the most overlooked aspects of SEO. Digital cameras give your images a generic file name. Many bloggers simply post such images without renaming them. The image’s name, however, can help people find your website (from google image search). I get regular visits from those searching for “faces of meth” pictures.

Warning: do not give your pictures misleading names for the sake of SEO. You will not keep visitors this way, and it may get you blocked from the search engine.

3. Consider the name/description of your blog.

If you already know what you plan to write about (your theme), give your blog a name and description that relate to the content.

4. Create backlinks.

Backlinks are simply links to your website posted on other sites. The more there are, the higher your website will rank. You can create backlinks by trading links with other bloggers, mentioning your blog when you comment on other blogs, etc.